Port of call Komodo Island -Jan 16, 2001

Position: Port of call Komodo Island -Jan 16, 2001

We have been cruising south from the Togean islands stopping at some of the smaller islands that are remote fishing villages. So remote they have no power and the villages of 200 to 500 live on fish, coconuts and vegetables from their small gardens. They live a very basic life style but seem happy and satisfied. The children have no toys but they can still play games of marbles, hopscotch, ping-pong on one piece of plywood and a board for a paddle. The children do have small dugout canoes they enjoy and appear to start swimming at a very early age. Fish is their basic food. Their catch is mostly very small silver fish, which are caught by netting. They are placed in the sun to let dry and the sun to preserve.

There are more than 13,000 islands in Indonesia. Most of the more populated islands are along the southern part of the country. There are more than 220 million Asian people and it is the 4th largest country in the world. It is more than 3,000 miles long and 1,000 miles wide with more than half of it water. This is why so many natives fish for their own food and to also make a living.

Komodo is an island along the southern boarder and is the home of the large Komodo dragon. The island is very remote, barren and has only a few fishing villages. After traveling all night we stopped at a calm bay by one of the villages and the crew hoped for a rest. Before the anchor was set we had 4 boats at the stern showing us their wares. Captain Bill was too tired to deal with visitors, so told them we needed sleep and to go away. They stayed on and waited for us to respond with their dragon woodcarvings, necklaces, etc in hand. We stopped here to see the dragons we had read about - some known to be 10 feet long - and prehistoric in appearance. They feed on wild pigs, deer, goats and I suppose people if they wander into their territory. We were fortunate NOT to find one of the nocturnal dragons not to be messed with. We ventured into the village later to have a look around just in case there were some dragons to be seen. The vendors drove us crazy with their pestering to buy and "No thank-you, we have no rupiah" was not effective. We were afraid to buy from 1 as we might start a war among the siblings so didn't buy anything. Continuing our slow walk thru the village taking photos and ignoring the merchants, most of them 10 to teen, was interesting. They had a community bath called a mandi. They use a large ladle or container to pour water over themselves, but never get into the basin. This is true in their homes, hotels and community bathing. They had a large water hole by the sea where the ladies were washing their cloths probably seawater, and rocks to spread them out on to dry. The ladies and even little girls were carrying buckets of cloths and food on their heads while the boys were still pressing us to buy. After our explorations and greeting the very friendly people we headed back to SeaQuell, pulled up the anchor and got away as there was a parade of boats following us with their wares.

We continued our cruise to the neighboring island of Rinca and found a beautiful peaceful anchorage with clean, clear, water.

Traveling North to South between islands, about 25 miles apart, we experienced a great tide carrying the Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean. The boat gave us our best over the ground ever, of 18.5 knots. This means a 10-knot tide. The Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean traveling through large straits in the north and then through smaller straits between the southern islands creating the high tide flow. Most of the eastern waters are very deep. Traveling west from Bali the waters become shallow, 100' or less in most of the Java Sea making seas rough and dangerous with shallow spots.

Indonesia has been very unstable politically due the unrest between the Muslims and Christians, as well as the scams of their present and past Prime Ministers. On last Christmas Eve 7 Christian churches on 7 different islands were burned. On most of the smaller islands we have found only a Mosque where prayers are broadcast over loud speakers.

We would consider Indonesia a 3rd world country in need of stability and help. The US state department considers it off limits for travel. By selecting our stops and their more remote locations we have had no trouble to date.

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